As the founder and CEO of Operation HOPE, John Hope Bryant has dedicated his life to empowering individuals and communities through financial education. His organization has provided millions with the tools and resources necessary to build wealth and achieve economic independence. His work has garnered national recognition and he has advised three sitting U.S. presidents on matters of economic empowerment and financial literacy for all.
On “Financial Freestyle with Ross Mac,” John Hope Bryant talks about life before the accolades and accomplishments. He vividly recounts his upbringing in South Central LA, where he witnessed the devastating impacts of domestic abuse, the dissolution of his family, and the murders of loved ones. These experiences, while profoundly tragic, ignited a vision within him — a source of inspiration and hope for a better life, not only for himself but for all.
Ultimately, the measure of John Hope Bryant can be seen in his unwavering commitment to making a difference. He embodies the idea that a person’s worth is determined not just by their personal achievements, but by their ability to uplift others and contribute to the greater good. His life serves as a powerful reminder that true success lies in the impact one has on the lives of others.
Ultimately, the measure of John Hope Bryant is within his name.
This post was written by Jimi Corpuz
Listen to the full, unedited interview wherever you get your podcast.
Video Transcript
The following content is not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services.
What’s up guys?
It’s your boy Ross Mack and welcome to the financial freestyle here on Yahoo Finance because I got a real special guest today, Mr John Holt Bryant, founder and CEO of Operation Hope, Mr Bryant.
Listen, I said this off camera but you always gotta get your flowers on camera too in this world that we’re in a financial literacy.
You are a true pillar in it, but you also, you know the the godfather of it.
So I just wanna thank you for one being here.
But two also all the work that you’ve done and continuing to do.
I appreciate that.
You know, we’re all, we’re all standing on tall shoulders.
Doctor King was in New York City here in New York.
Uh two weeks before he was assassinated at Harry Belafonte’s house and the ambassador Andrew Young, my mentor was there with him and Doctor King was saying, look, Andy called him Andy uh call him ambassador Young.
Uh We we can’t keep having the protest to get a street light up.
We have two things we need to do.
We need to get some people who look like us in political office so we can just call the mayor and ask for a street light.
We shouldn’t be protesting for a street light.
Number two, we’ve got to get this economic situation under, under, under gird.
We gotta focus to the issue of money and economics and empowerment.
And that’s why he pivoted to the poor people’s campaign which in all likelihood got him assassinated.
He was talking about um the right to vote or access to a public facility or even the Vietnam War, which upset a lot of people.
But when you start talking about money, uh and certainly the redistribution of wealth and he’s a Nobel Peace Prize winner, civilizing all poor people and the more the large population of poverty in this country are poor whites then.
And now, uh you don’t live very long.
And uh and 100 years before that Abraham Lincoln had listened to Frederick Douglass.
Uh and over time began to understand that it wasn’t just about saving the union, it was about saving our humanity, it was about the decency, it was the dignity of people.
It was a business plan for America and uh Lincoln evolved and they created the Freeman’s Bank March 3rd 1865 2 months after 40 acres and a mule.
So it was 40 acres in January, a mule in February, the bank in uh March.
And the promise of to give blacks the right to vote uh led to his assassination in April and both a both Abraham Lincoln and Doctor King were killed in April of the successive years of 1865 and 1968.
It’s interesting that April today is April these days, there’s financial literacy month every year.
Um And I think this financial literacy is a civil rights issue of this generation.
If Doctor King was alive today, uh this would be the work he’d be doing.
And so this is a, this is a progression of work that started in the streets and now we hope will migrate to the sea suites.
Anybody doing something new and innovative, you’re gonna create a whole new constituency of not just leaders but thought, thought leadership uh that changes the dynamics of who we are and where we are.
And uh every 100 years or so, she goes through a bit of a rebirth and uh we’re in that period right now.
We’re sitting in this moment in history.
So I, I wouldn’t be doing this if I thought that it was just a nice program or a nice to do or, uh, even if I thought it was important, um, I, I just think somebody else could do that.
Um, I’m only doing what I think that I, I, um, can uniquely contribute to and what I think has a, a ripple effect and I think this has 100 year ripple effect.
You’ve advised three sitting presidents and you are responsible for getting financial literacy, you know, effectively kind of mandated, right?
So let’s kinda talk about who you are and how you got to there.
And obviously, what’s your passion for financial literacy is?
I mean, I’m God’s child.
Um I’m reflective of, of the majority of my viewers on social media, of 3 million followers and a couple of 100 million video views.
Uh I’m told of a million and a half to 2 million videos views a week.
Um The, the new book that I have out financial literacy for all, which is uh been a best seller on business finance for four months now is being purchased by everybody, but notably by young black um aspiring people.
I think this is the aspiration generation and a lot of people who follow me on social media are young African American 18 to 35 looking for a role model, looking for a mentor that was me.
Um So they’re following me who was them, right?
And um, who was the, who was the me that is now them, it’s uh a young guy from South Central L A whose uh mom and dad came from the south and, uh, with a high school education, um, they built something out of nothing.
Uh, we, uh accumulated, uh, just through hard work and grit.
Um, eight unit apartment building that would be worth 6 to $8 million.
Today, we bought it for $18,000.
Uh Back in the early seventies, we own our own home in South Central L A.
Uh on Martin Luther King Boulevard, you then call it Santa Barbara.
Uh uh a nursery business of cement contracting business.
They were in, they were ballers and uh unfortunately, my dad could make the money but couldn’t keep it.
And the more money he made the broker we got because he was financially illiterate.
And so ambassador Andrew Young, my mentor says that men and women fail with three reasons, arrogance, pride, and greed.
And my dad was really smart and a great worker and in no way is lazy, but he was full of pride.
He was a great hustler together two plus two in a relationship is the only place that math should not work.
Two plus two has to equal more than four if it’s not 68 or 10.
And so my dad should have used a multiple of compounding in a relationship and leverage my mother’s strength but he just thought she was beautiful and discounted her other values and she, she, he should have made it and pass it over to her.
I had to call the police on my dad when I was five years old or something like that with my sister handed me the phone to talk to the police for some reason.
She, she handed me the phone.
Um, and my mother left my dad, uh, because, uh, he took the $4000.
He was gonna, she was gonna use to send my brother Donnie to college of his choice to be whoever he wanted.
He could have been me and you or own this organization, who knows what he would have done.
But because he, he, my dad took that money and wasted it.
He was forced to go in the US military to get an education and they traded four years of his life for, uh, four years of college and then they knew the behavioral economics.
They knew he’d probably stay and he stayed his entire career and he ended up marrying a Hawaiian living in Hawaii, uh, having Hawaiian Children, having a career in the military, retiring from the military, working for the military as a contractor.
He has no regrets but all that was, uh, because he had no self determination.
He didn’t decide what he was gonna do and what college he was gonna go to, he had to go to a college through the military because that was where the money was because my dad took the, the, the free cash flow that we had.
And so I, that my mother got that memo man.
I mean, I was too young to understand at that time, but my mother was like, that’s my oldest child and he didn’t have a free choice.
My other 22 Children and have a free choice.
So we, she left him and we went to go live, um, with her girlfriend who she told me was my aunt.
So I would be nervous, I guess.
And the guy who saved my life as I fell on his front porch and was swallowing my tongue, uh, on his front porch at the place we were staying, he was selling drugs part time to uh to take care of his family and ours now pride again.
He should have just said to my mother, hey, look, uh II I can take care of my family.
And ross my mother would have said yes, it would have been that simple.
And so she didn’t know that he was an issue until the drug dealers followed him home one day to send a message and murdered him in front of me.
He’s riding a bicycle home and they waited until he got right in front of the house when we were sitting there waiting for him and they killed him in front of us and drug him down the street.
That was bad capitalism, but was really insulting.
Like those are black people who killed a black man over a block that they didn’t know.
So I, I, I’m, I started paying attention.
My next door neighbor was a drug dealer named Tweet.
He was 18 years old, little knucklehead, but he ran the household.
I mean, he told his parents what to do because it was all about the money.
Oh, I’m paying attention.
So my best friend at that time was George and he was a really smart kid.
Uh, but he didn’t have good parents like I did, even though my mom and dad divorced, my mother, dad had gave me a sense of yes I can.
My mother a sense of yes I am.
So they were not together, but they were unified around me and, and so I never had a self esteem problem.
George had a really bad self esteem problem.
He didn’t know who he was, even though he was smarter than me.
The guy had great grades.
You know, he got murdered with Tweet, hanging out with Tweed, walking Light Tweet, talking to Light Tweet.
So I’m going, whoa wait a minute now, here’s a guy who’s smarter than me.
So I had to, I saw my dad worked harder than anybody else.
This other guy was very honorable and wanted to treat uh everybody well and take care of be the host of his house.
But he made bad decisions, hung around bad people.
And then, and now this guy who’s smarter than me, he’s murdered.
Uh I’m going ok, all these and that was about money, by the way, selling drugs like, ok, I need to find a business plan that doesn’t get you dead and get you out of here and I can take the rest of my neighborhood with me.
I went to in the coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous again, Andrew young quote.
And I went to school, this white banker came in my classroom, you know the story because you said you mentioned it earlier.
He was, well, you mentioned the candy store.
He, he was uh you know, 62 Work Bank of America white shirt, red tie, blue suit, 62 beautifully stitched suit.
It wasn’t like that a detective in the neighborhood who had the polyester bad suits.
This was a really beautiful suit and uh he came in once a week for six weeks for 45 minutes.
Career basically.
Career day taught financial literacy, home economics class.
We’re like, well, you know, you’re not such a bad like for a white dude, right?
So we building a relationship and I think it was the third session like, man, what do you do for a living?
And how do you get rich legally?
He said I’m a banker and I finance entrepreneurs, man.
I don’t know what an entrepreneur is, but if you’re financing it and it’s legal and I don’t get debt, I’m gonna do that.
And uh I think the next week I asked my mother, could I wear a suit to look like the banker.
The only suit she had was the one that she made for my Sunday service.
I went to church on Sundays.
It was a crushed velvet three piece purple velour suit with a ruffle show.
Got beat up going to school in that suit.
I wore it had a little briefcase with my dreams in it.
I asked him like, by the way, are there more people like you, you have a business card?
You’re here in the middle of the day?
You chilling, chilling, you know, you, you’re un you’re stressed out the car in the parking lot’s got tags on it, right?
I mean, you’re like a Martian.
So yeah, there’s, there’s a lot of bankers in the world in the country and our job is to lend money to people.
I’m like, well, you’re wait a minute, your job is to lend money to poor people.
All I do is tell you, prove to you that I’m credit worthy and I don’t get dead or I don’t, I just kept saying this, I’m not gonna get murdered if I don’t pay you back and he was, he was like, what do you keep talking about?
Like because everybody in my neighborhood like the consequences of doing this wrong is you disappear.
So I’m like, ok, I’m gonna teach everybody this man, I mean, if, if there are bankers and this is their job, so to this day, I’m fascinated at 4500 banks in America, the biggest economy on the planet.
And there’s 270,000 bankers at Wells Fargo, there’s probably another 250,000 at Bank of America.
There’s another, you know, you just, just the numbers, you know, 80,000 and I’m probably at truist in US bank and all these people in places I’m like, and you’re jobs, lend money just to lend money.
So when I look at my people now my works for everybody, but I look at African Americans, our credit score is an average of 620 we’re complaining about racism and bias discrimination all day and all night and police brutality.
Yeah, that’s all important and yes, Black Lives Matter but Black Capitalist Matter matter more and, and the the bank may not be discriminated against you because you’re black.
By the way, the blank wants the bank wants to make some money so they can’t make any money unless they make a loan, right?
They won’t know you green as in the color of currency.
But if your credit score is 620 Ross, you’re gonna get a no if your credit score and by the way, 620 is an average.
So that means that you and I we had a 700 plus credit score, maybe an 800.
And our cousin Pookie them had a 550 credit score and there’s more of them than us So it averaged out right.
So on average is 620.
So if you can walk walking in there, 5 85 90 credit score, you’re asking for a mortgage loan, 30 year obligation, pay the back of that house over time, pay the bank bank, they’re gonna say no, you’re trying to get a small business loan, risky credit, the riskiest form of credit and your credit score is 605 and you got, you know, evictions on your re record and all this kind of stuff and there’s no good explanation for it.
Banks won’t tell you no.
So I just figured out if I can get everybody a 700 the computer will say yes, you don’t have to worry about somebody discriminating against you.
The computer will say yes, the increasingly in this world of A I and robotics and technology, I mean, it just takes all the drama out of the decision.
So I, I actually see a promised land to quote Doctor King.
I mean, Doctor King said I may not get there with you, but I’ve seen the promised land when we talk about whether it was your family, your upbringing, a few things that you talked about what uh you know, cat effectively was like a downfall, was pride, right?
And I think across the nation talking about money is taboo, right?
I don’t want you to know, you know, how much money I have in retirement.
Right.
And I was looking at, you know, obviously a lot of self esteem too, by the way, pride is, the pride is a cover it, it’s ego, it’s insecurity, it’s fear, it’s tied to low self esteem in many cases.
And so I was gonna segue that into saying one of the things I heard you say was what’s your ultimate goal?
And he’s like, I wanna be the Federal Reserve of the hood.
And so like help us unders, you know, understand what that is.
We need a Black Jewish businessman, my Jewish brothers and sisters, 15 million uh of them, half of them here, half of them around the world in a world of 8 billion people have changed the game, their household name in the world because of what they’ve created because of yes, the wealth but, but the industry that, I mean, Goldman Sachs, we think about it as an institution.
Goldman Sachs, two Jewish brothers who came in and sold stuff door to door in the early 19 hundreds because they couldn’t get a job.
In fact, a lot of Jews got jobs at H BC US Historically Black Colleges Universities, they couldn’t get jobs in mainstream America, they were discriminated against.
And so uh that’s one of the reasons why there was such a, a bond between blacks and Jews and, and then of course, civil rights movements, uh you know, Doctor King had 20% of white community support, 20% of the black community support at his height, half of the white was Jewish.
Uh because they understood the pain, they could relate to the, to the challenges.
But in spite of all that, in spite of they couldn’t own land in Europe.
So they became financiers of land.
And then when the land, when the people can pay it back, they end up owning the land, they just found a way over to round it through it.
You never had a place at a time in history where you needed all of us to succeed in this economy, which is the biggest in the world and the sole superpower in the world.
In 1972 her mother could not have a credit card in America.
Not 1872 1972 could not get a bank account, could not get a loan unless her husband co-signed it.
There was a fight over whether that was right, whether women should just keep their place quote unquote in the kitchen and in the house.
And luckily that fight was won on the side of goodness and women, uh, were set free to have their own possibility and they rode the back of what we call affirmative action by the way, which was created to benefit blacks, but actually benefited white women and women were in power.
If we had not made the right decision to bring women into the economy to let them be self actualized.
We’d be an also ran country today.
So women saved America and I think people of color, the next big change that’s coming.
Uh If we are smart uh will be a benefit and once again, help us to make sure we’re not speaking Mandarin in 20 years.
Uh uh because China and Russia and Iran uh and North Korea won our way of life.
They can’t win on a fair fight.
They can’t, they can’t just compete with us on a, on a level playing field.
They got, they got cheated capitalism.
This is much more for me than a program or an experience of one group.
Certainly not one group over another.
I, I actually think that if a black person succeeds in 2025 the races wins because GDP rises.
So you have black people at the bottom of this economic pyramid but worse credit score.
You just, we talked about Chicago already a net worth of zero.
Go on and going on and you have Latinos not doing much better and it goes on, it goes on and goes on, right.
You got this population of poor white people who, who were ignored since the industrial revolution.
They’re now riding at the ballot box, they’re frustrated, right?
We gotta fix these problems.
We gotta repair the ladder, the ladder of aspirational success.
This is the aspiration generation and uh and I wanna be part of the repair kit.
I look at financial literacy as the equalizer, right?
Give us, you know, just a few steps on how we can leverage, you know whether it’s investing getting our credit scores, right, et cetera, like in order to get to prosperity.
And actually, as a community, how do we make money effectively?
You never had a riot in a 700 credit score neighborhood in all of America’s history.
Not one that was location based, meaning people live there only 500 credit square neighborhoods riot and you live 20 years longer in a 700 credit score neighborhood than you do.
You live 15 minutes away in the 580 credit score neighborhood.
That’s every zip code in America.
We’ve been, we’ve, we’ve mapped every one of them through the co credit score uh index and talk about this in my book, Financial Literacy for All.
Number two, you need to have a 700 credit score so you can access capital you want.
Would you wanna do with that capital or you wanted to make you want?
You wanna have good debt, not bad debt, don’t finance jewelry, finance a piece of real estate if you never see any millionaire, including the one sitting in front of you who didn’t do it with real estate in their portfolio.
The biggest way, the easiest way to build wealth in America is homeownership.
So you so so get yourself some good debt with a good credit score, low, low rates, good terms.
Buy yourself a piece of real estate and hold on to it.
I want you to live in one of them.
They wanna take the equity from that in 3 to 5 years and buy another piece of real estate.
Not a mini mansion.
I want some I a working class neighborhood, buy it, rehab it rent it, by the way, rehab with people from the neighborhood to recycle those dollars, rent it and hold on to it, do that three times and you have a million dollar net worth in five years.
Uh which means that even if you pass on with no assets and you have 100,000 to a million dollar net life insurance policy which you can get for little to nothing.
If you’re in good health means that you’re gonna have generational wealth for those that come behind you and you won’t be doing a gofundme when you pass out and die and somebody and, and, and if you know no one to cover your funeral expenses, I want you to have a will.
So the proper people actually get the resources that you’ve worked hard for probate.
But avoid probate and a fight with, with all the family because they, people change over money.
You make money during the day, you build wealth in your sleep.
Oh, buy a broad basket of stocks and don’t sell them, go flight to quality.
If you’re working there, they have free money, meaning a match that you’re taking every dollar.
They got the, you, you put a dollar, they match you a dollar, right?
And, and so, and then own a business.
If you, if you can, if you have the, if you have the, the stomach for that attitude, for the spirit for it.
Become a business owner or an entrepreneur because now you’re creating your own, using your own hustle uh and your own relationship capital uh in order to build wealth.
So those are some, some short state, short step to uh do what I did, which is to go from the bottom to the top, from literally homeless to the bottom of the 1%.
You, you make more money on your money, then you can make with your time.
You make more money on your money that you can make with your time.
And thank you for giving me your time has been valuable.
I wanna really have a big special thanks to Mr John o’brien for sharing history with us and I wanna give a big special thanks to you guys for joining us on financial freestyle.
I really do hope you guys got some great insight, some inspiration when it comes to building wealth and actually growing, man.
This content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services.